Wow Dick Gordon

Under his Senate Bill 2402, Gordon would have telecommunication firms taxed 20 percent of their income from text messages, with the taxes amounting to billions of pesos annually to be spent specifically on education and health.
Anticipating protests from the public, Gordon said his proposal should not raise the cost of a text message currently at P1 per text message since ideally, telecommunication firms would only part with a portion of their profits.

Gordon said his proposal did not intend to pass on any new tax to the more than 60 million mobile phone subscribers.

“While I share his frustration over the government’s inefficient tax administration and collection system, a careful reading of my proposal shows that there is no tax intended to be imposed and definitely, the brunt of it would not to be passed on mobile phone subscribers,” said Gordon.

“We want to move our country in the right direction, and we don’t want to go back to policies that have failed us in the past as a nation and as a people. We are finding innovative solutions to decades-old problems of education and health care services,” he added.

He estimated that 400 million text messages are sent each day in the country, with each text message costing P1.

Gordon for, Lacson against text tax
By Dona Pazzibugan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:30:00 09/30/2008
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080930-163825/
Gordon-for-Lacson-against-text-tax

The current budgetary gaps in education and health can be filled up by 50 centavos for every text message, Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises, said yesterday.

Gordon said he believes that it is possible for the government to be able to fill the gaps in health and education through the cooperation of telecommunications companies if the latter would be required to remit half of their net revenues from local text messages to the government.

He is now pushing this measure in a bill he filed at the Senate, Senate Bill No. 2402, wherein he proposed that telecommunication firms be required to allocate every single short message system (SMS) charged to their consumers to the government to address the ballooning backlogs in education and health infrastructures.

“When you think about it, R0.50 centavos of every peso you pay every time you send a text message will ensure a world-class education system that is at par with other developing nations. We have more to gain from this than to lose,” Gordon said.

Though it may raise eyebrows at first, Gordon said he is confident that the measure, also known as the Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP) bill, would bring a lot of benefits to the whole country.

“If the public is aware of the educational and health benefits that our children will gain from the bill, I believe they would even text more often, knowing that every text message they send, part of it will be for the improvement of the country’s educational and health system,” Gordon said.

The Department of Education (DepEd), in its report to the House appropriations committee, disclosed that it is facing a shortage of 12,418 classrooms; 1,744,237 school seats; 44,200,000 textbooks; 12,733 teachers and 24,709 principals.

The DepEd also noted that 21 percent of pupils are malnourished. Some 11.4 percent of pupils with ages 6-12 are iodine deficient; 37.4 percent suffer from iron deficiency anemia; 36 percent are vitamin A deficient; 67 percent of children suffer from intestinal worms; 97 percent have dental carries, 6.23 percent have hearing impairment; and 2.54 percent are visually impaired.

The measure, Gordon said, can address all these health concerns of the pupils with the money that can be generated from the estimated funds.

Gordon projected that the government can collect up to R73 billion from the HEAP program.

Half of text messages income should go to schools, health care – Gordon
By HANNAH L. TORREGOZA
Manila Buletin
Thursday 25 September 2008
http://www.mb.com.ph/MAIN20080925136179.html

MANILA, Philippines - Amid a Senate controversy over the issue of double insertions, Senator Richard Gordon on Friday filed a resolution seeking a more transparent allocation of budget for government projects in the national budget.
In Senate Resolution 650, Gordon asked the Senate finance committee to require “sufficient and accurate” description for every item included in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“We have to make reforms to thwart any confusion that may result from vague and imprecise provisions in the General Appropriations Bill, and to preserve and protect the integrity of Congress and other government institutions involved in the budget process,” Gordon said.

The senator said every item in the GAA should be concisely described in such a way that they are sufficiently distinct from one another and may not be confused with any other item in the national budget.

“This is to give life to the declared state policy of making the budget oriented towards the achievement of explicit objectives and expected results for the effective, economical and efficient utilization of funds and operations of government entities,” Gordon said.

He said that current debates in the Senate with regard to the alleged double entry in the budget allocation for the construction of a single road calls for more transparency in the preparation of subsequent national budgets.

“The recent events involving alleged anomalous amendments or insertions to the proposed national budget call for reforms in the manner through which items in the GAA are identified and defined,” Gordon said.

Gordon stressed the need for such resolution to avoid further controversies such as the suspected double budget insertion for the construction of the C-5 road from happening again.

He added that utmost transparency, especially in issues involving public interest, is seriously needed to uphold the Senate’s integrity and maintain the public’s trust and confidence in the legislators and in the Senate as an institution.

Amid double entry mess, Gordon seeks more accurate description of items in nat’l budget
Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV
09/19/2008 | 01:43 PM
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/121470/Amid-double-entry-mess-Gordon-seeks
-more-accurate-description-of-items-in-natl-budget

Manila: A lawmaker has proposed channelling profits derived by local telecom firms from mobile phone text services to construct more schools and to improve health services in the country.
In filing Senate Bill 2402, Senator Richard Gordon said it is about time that Filipinos benefit from the profits earned by local communication firms from text messaging by using telecom profits.

Gordon proposed that the state get half of the profits earned by telecom firms providing text services. This amount would then be put into a special fund.

“Using 2007 estimates, there are 54 million mobile phone subscribers in the country. Assuming that every subscriber sends out an average of ten text messages daily at a cost of 1 peso (Dh0.08) per message, the fund’s 50 per cent share in daily revenues would amount to 269.79 million pesos (Dh20.9 million),” he said.

Unlike the case in other countries where text message services are considered a value-added service by telecom firms, Filipinos pay a considerable price for text messaging.

Senator seeks to tap SMS for good causes
By Gilbert Felongco, Correspondent
Published: September 16, 2008, 23:52
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Philippines/10245623.html

Senator Richard J. Gordon today said he will bring public consultations on proposals to revise the 1987 Constitution down to the regional and provincial level, saying that any discussion on Constitutional Change should involve the greatest number of people and the widest array of sectors.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate constitutional amendments committee, said he would like to validate mounting calls from some sectors to replace the presidential, bicameral to parliamentary or federal, unicameral system of government.

“If we amend or revise the Constitution, it should come from the people. This is so that the people will have a real sense of owning the fundamental law of the land and not feel left out or that something has dictated upon them. It is vitally important that everybody’s voice is heard and no one is excluded from these discussions,” he said.

Earlier this week, senators led by Gordon sat down with members of the academe and representatives of various non-government organizations at a hearing held on a proposal to shift to a federal form of government.

In the hearing, Gordon stressed that the people must be thoroughly informed and educated regarding the repercussions of opening up the Constitution for amendments, particularly on certain provisions need to be rectified, including term limits of president and other incumbent officials, among others.

“People are naturally fearful of what they don’t understand and putting in changes in our Constitution will have far-reaching effects on the lives of millions of Filipinos. We have to discuss, first, if amendments are indeed desired and how do go about the process of amending the Constitution? What items do we want to change? Do our regions and provinces want to become a state? These are just some of the questions our leaders and our people have to decide on,” said Gordon.

He further explained that leaders in local government as well as people’s organizations and even individuals would be welcome to join in the regional consultations.

“Beyond talking about Cha-Cha, we will also be interested in learning of other problems that our people may have that stem from limitations in the Constitutions. We look forward to starting this process of consultations, we want to hear all that our people want to tell us and the direction they want to take in the future,” said Gordon.

In order to ensure that enough time will be given to informing, educating, and building consensus on issues surrounding Constitutional change, Gordon is set to file a resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention that would be convened only after 2010.

“This should take the pressure off the people to decide on committing to changes in a fundamental contract between the people and the state. Besides that, we want candidates in the 2010 elections to bare their stand on constitutional change and make their stand on this issue a part of their platform. This will raise the level of public debate and make the next elections more about issues — and less about perakter or financial girth and survey popularity,” said Gordon.

SHOPPING
malls may become the polling precinct of the future and voters can cast
their vote as easily as withdrawing cash from an automated teller
machine.

Senator Richard Gordon said putting up satellite voting
centers was plausible in the wake of the success of the automated
elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Gordon,
who was guest in a recent forum in Quezon City, said voters will no
longer have to troop to the provinces in order to vote.

“In the
future, one only has to go to the mall, find an automated polling
machine and cast his or her vote. The idea is they can vote only once.
If they do that in other machines, they will immediately be barred to
vote again,” said Gordon, touted as the father of automated elections.

Gordon
said he was confident the automated elections can be done in the next
elections, noting its success despite the unstable security situation,
inadequate communications and transportation infrastructure.

Gordon
further noted that despite the lack of time for a massive voter
education campaign on the new automated system, voters in Maguindanao
generally described their voting experience as “easy and amazing.”

Vince
Dizon, spokesman for Smartmatic-Sahi, the technology provider for the
automated polls, said the success proved that the country is ready for
full automation in 2010.

“It was Senator Gordon’s efforts in the
Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on election automation that
pushed the Comelec to ensure automation of the ARMM elections. We owe
it to him that we were able to successfully pilot-test the technologies
in preparation for the 2010 national elections,” Dizon said.

“We
will make sure that the Commission on Elections will give ample time
for the training of voters in next elections,” Gordon said.

“If given a longer period of time training, definitely the voters will be more confident in using the machines,” Dizon said.

“With
DRE machines, counting is done automatically and transmission can be
done in minutes directly from the precincts. This is the wave of the
future and the voters of Maguindanao have proven that we are ready for
fast, clean and credible elections,” he added.

Shopping malls as voting centers
Joel M. Sy Egco
Manila Standard Today
Saturday - 23 August 2008
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=politics2_aug23_2008

MANILA, Philippines — Volunteers and officers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRCC) and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) are evacuating some 700 civilians caught in the crossfire of the escalating violence in Mindanao, Senator Richard Gordon said Friday.

In a phone interview, Gordon, who also chairs the PNRC, said the civilians are from the villages of Muntay, Balong, and Ambadan in Datu Piang town, Maguindanao province.

"We might bring them to a tent city we might set up in Cotabato…We are simply getting them out of harm’s way," he said.

The senator said the PNRC is also responding to the needs of the people in Oroquieta, Ozamiz, and South Cotabato, the last of which saw a cholera outbreak among evacuees.

"We are also helping in the dengue outbreak in Calasiao, Pangasinan…We’re still verifying the reported [dengue] outbreak in Baguio…Our people and our resources are really stretched," he said.

Gordon appealed to the public for donations to the PNRC. He said cash and checks will go a long way towards purchasing food and other needs in the areas of concern, which would lower transportation costs.

"You can dial 143 or 527-0000 for your donations," he said.

Fighting broke out between government forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels after Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the signing of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), which would have led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

Red Cross evacuating 700 caught in Mindanao crossfire

Gordon appeals for public help

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net

First Posted 16:01:00 08/22/2008
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080822-156248/
Red-Cross-evacuating-700-caught-in-Mindana